Mumtaz has this to say about her rivalry with Sharmila Tagore: 'She had more flops...'

Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore worked extensively with Rajesh Khanna. Though the actress earlier said that two heroines can never be friends, she has now refuted any rivalry between her and Sharmila Tagore. 

In a conversation with Rediff, Mumtaz opened up on her 'rivalry' with Sharmila Tagore and said, "I respect her (Sharmila Tagore) a lot. She is far more educated and sophisticated than me. I started working at the age of eight, so I learned everything on the job. Whether it is Sharmila or any other heroine, I never had time to interact with them.”

She further added that though they both worked a lot with Rajesh Khanna, the actor never tried to fuel the rivalry between them and said, "But yes, I did more films with Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) than Sharmilaji. It was god’s blessing that not one film of mine with Kaka flopped. Sharmilaji had flops with him. Rajesh Khanna never fueled the rivalry or spoke a word against Sharmilaji. But he would get upset when I signed films with other heroes like Dharmendraji or Devsaab. But he worked with other heroines; I never sulked. He thought he owned me. But never mind, it meant that he cared for me.”

Mumtaz and Rajesh Khanna worked in around 10 films together including Roti, Aap Ki Kasam, Apna Desh, and Sachcha Jhoothaall of them turned out to be superhits. Sharmila Tagore worked with Rajesh Khanna in films like Amar Prem, Aradhana, Daag, Safar, Malik, and more. While some of these were hits, others flopped at the box office.

Sharmila Tagore and Mumtaz worked together in films like Yeh Raat Fir Naa Aayegi, Mere Hamdam Mere Dost, Sawan Ki Ghata, and more. Earlier, in an interview with Times Entertainment, the actress talked about her rivalry and said, "Heroines cannot be friends, not then, not now. We didn’t do dinners or hang out together. It’s always been like that.”

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